I have been surprised, even shocked, reading the "Nutrition facts" on various food items that come my way.
As just an example, my wife brough home a package of Enteman's chocolate donuts. I used to eat one or two of these without giving it a thought. Each donut has 12 grams of saturated fat.
I pulled a package of bratwurst out of my freezer. Each "dog" has 23 grams of saturated fat. I remember times when I would eat two of these, and even a time or two when I ate three. Now just half of one is 11.5 grams of saturated fat and over my daily limit!
Instant Ramen noodles were a big surprise. Without question cheap ramen has always had some question marks along side of it. But reading the nutrition facts I find that a package contains 8 grams of saturated fat. How can this be? It turns out the noodles are "preserved" by a quick fry in palm oil. This is used because it gives a long shelf life. Palm oil is also one of the few plant oils high in saturated fat. There is a connection -- mark it down. Anything that doesn't spoil probably ought not to be eaten. If the bacteria don't want it, neither should you!
So, as far as saturated fat (and calories), no big deal at all. The kicker is the cholesterol. However there is a raging controversy right now about dietary cholesterol. People are arguing that only a small fraction of the cholesterol in your diet makes it into your bloodstream. Is this biased science pushed by the egg lobby or can we rely on this information? Beware, and little or no harm will be done by omitting eggs from your diet.
Lemmon Raspberry Muffins - per muffin - 110 gram weight, 420 calories, 23 grams total fat, 14 grams of saturated fat, 25g sugar, 53mg sodium.
Cheesecake - per slice - 120 gram weight, 440 calories, 29 grams total fat, 18 grams of saturated fat, 1 gram trans fat (!!), 32g sugar, 250mg sodium.
Apple pie - per slice (12 slices per pie) - 116 gram weight, 290 calories, 14 grams total fat, 7 grams of saturated fat, 18g sugar, 310mg sodium.
Cherry pie - per slice (16 slices per pie) - 128 gram weight, 340 calories, 16 grams total fat, 4 grams of saturated fat, no added sugar, 240mg sodium.
In other words, the only one of the above I could eat without feeling like I was poisoning myself would be the cherry pie. The apple pie is marginal with 7g of saturated fat. It is no surprise that the cheesecake is out of the question, but the surprise is that the muffins are nearly as bad!
Remember that my guideline is 10g of saturated fat per day -- and less than that is clearly better. The muffins are as bad as donuts or bratwurst.
Tom's home page / tom@mmto.org